Two protesters in Seattle were seriously injured early Saturday when they were hit by a car that was driving to a closed interstate.
A 24-year-old Seattle vehicle was hit by the vehicle and hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, Washington State Patrol Captain Ron Mead said at a press conference. Bellingham, 32, was hospitalized with serious injuries and remains in stable condition.
The driver, a 27-year-old man from Seattle, was arrested and faces multiple felony charges. It is unclear if the collision was a targeted attack, authorities said.
The interstate closed just before midnight due to another round of protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
Mead said protesters entered the interstate around 12:17 a.m. and just after 1:30 a.m., a white car hit the road and hit the two women.
A video posted on Twitter showed that the car was traveling down the road and passing three parked vehicles before rushing towards the protesters. People are seen in the video struggling to get out of the way, but the vehicle hits two of them.
A photo released by police showed the car with frontal damage and a broken windshield.
“We do not know exactly where the vehicle came from, but we suspect that it came the wrong way, on a ramp. It did not go through one of the closing points we had posted,” said the captain, adding that officers do not believe the deterioration of the driver was a factor.
“We don’t know at this point in the investigation what the reason was, what the reasoning was,” Mead said.
The captain urged protesters to stop holding protests on the road.
